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The state Court of Appeals heard legal arguments Tuesday in the case of a Washington County man found guilty of killing his mother, stepfather and stepbrother in 2011.
A special prosecutor is seeking to reverse a mid-level appeals court decision that reversed the conviction of Matthew Slocum because the trial judge allowed jurors to hear a statement Slocum gave to investigators after a public defender representing him in a different case asked police not to question him.
The two sides also argued over a confession obtained after an officer asked Slocum if he should have a lawyer present or wanted the public defender and he replied “Yeah, probably.”
Judge Eugene Fahey noted a prior case involved a defendant saying “I think I want to talk to a lawyer,” and that was deemed legally sufficient to stop questioning.
” ‘I think I want a lawyer’ is more equivocal than ‘Yeah, probably,’ ” Fahey said. “The test is whether objectively a reasonable person would consider that a request.”
Washington County Public Defender Michael Mercure replied that Slocum clearly meant he wanted counsel.
Special District Attorney Jason Weinstein said the officers properly decided that Slocum saying “Yeah, probably” was not a clear request for an attorney.
The two sides also argued over whether police should have questioned him without Mercure present. Learning Slocum was being sought in the murder case, Mercure sent a letter telling police not to question Slocum. Weinstein said Mercure had no legal standing to claim he was Slocum’s counsel in the murder case.
“You didn’t say you represented him. You said he was eligible for your representation,” Judge Leslie Stein told Mercure.
“I was attempting to enter (the case),” he replied. “He was an existing client. The charges were fairly recent. We weren’t certain he was the person responsible. We just knew we had a present client who was the subject of a multistate Amber alert.”
Slocum, 30, formerly of White Creek, was sentenced to 88 years to life at Clinton Correctional Facility after being convicted in 2012. He was moved back to Washington County Jail after winning the lower court decision on Nov. 12, 2015 that the case should be retried, but without a second jury hearing Slocum’s statement, “I just shotgunned my mother, dude,” taken by two detectives interviewing him in New Hampshire.
Prosecutors claimed Slocum killed his mother, Lisa Coon Harrington, 44; her husband, Dan Harrington, 41; and Harrington’s son, Joshua O’Brien, 24, inside the home at 118 Turnpike Road July 13, 2011. He then allegedly set the house ablaze.
After the killings, prosecutors said Slocum and his girlfriend, Loretta Colegrove, fled to New Hampshire where Slocum was arrested.
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